East gets stronger with trade deadline moves

There was so much trade activity last week, even Gregg Popovich was surprised and impressed.

“Yes, I was,” said the Spurs coach. “Usually it’s much ado about nothing. This time all those rumors and situations that were talked about in the papers and on TV and on those fancy machines everybody carries around, most of them came about, and even some surprises that nobody had talked about. So there was a great deal of activity that surprised me.”

What should we make of all that surprising activity?

Don’t ask Popovich, now the longest-tenured coach in the league.

“I have no control over what any of those players might do with any of their (new) teams,” he said. “but when we play each of them, I’ll concentrate on what’s going on with that team. But ahead of that, I’ll spend no time contemplating what it means for everyone.”

Not to worry.

We’re here to help.

Of course, there’s no need to wonder which team lost the most, not when its own general manager is so refreshingly honest.

“We feel we got killed in the trade because we lost a couple of pretty good players,” the Nuggets’ Masai Ujiri told reporters in Denver, earning everlasting respect for honesty about the deal that cost his team Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups. “I feel sad for the city of Denver. I feel bad that this was done on my watch; to lose a guy like (Anthony), and also Chauncey Billups. But I think we had to do it.”

In fact, Ujiri extracted more from the Knicks than they wanted to give a team dealing from weakness because Anthony made it clear he would leave this summer if no trade happened.

Here’s a guide to the new NBA power structure after a week in which 49 players changed teams. That’s more than 10 percent of all the league’s players, making trade deadline week one of the busiest ever.

The move: They didn’t reach elite level quite yet, but they went from mediocre to good, with a chance to get to the second round of the playoffs. The fact that their fan base is energized is important, too.

The move: The trade came too late to get them in this year’s playoffs, but its impact will be felt for a long time, presuming Williams likes New Jersey/Brooklyn enough to re-sign when he becomes a free agent. If so, they have a chance to be a title contender in a few years.

The move: They were a first-round loser with Bibby’s awful defense. Now they have a shot at the second round and frightening someone.

DOWNWARD SPIRAL

Celtics

Acquired: Jeff Green, Nenad Krstic

Lost: Kendrick Perkins, Nate Robinson

The move: A team with an aging core gave up one of the league’s most solid interior defenders, and its veterans aren’t happy about it. Relying on 38-year-old Shaquille O’Neal’s legs in the playoffs is risky business.